Sunday, 6 March 2011

Lyngen Alps (Norway), but with the kids this time!

We had often dreamt of sharing this piece of ski-touring paradise with our children! So it was a great thrill when my two boys Sacha (18) and Ariel (16) and Jean-Marc's youngest Yoann (17) joined us for this, our 16th trip to Norway!

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't at its best but we were blessed with some spectacular viewings of the Northern Lights and we did have four decent days, enabling us to do the traverse of the Kogen Isle (see photo) which is a route we first started doing in 2006.

The climb starts on steep slopes that seem to 'jut' out of the sea. The hard snow forced us to use crampons for this leg of the route. The peak is a glacial 'meringue' on one side and on the other, a vertiginous drop of over 1000m! This is the route we take to go down; a wide, steep, slightly foreboding gully, overshadowed by towers of black granite and icy walls. On this occasion the descent was even more impressive because of the delicate snow conditions: this was real high mountain skiing requiring precision and concentration! At the top of the couloir, there were 'waves' created by the wind in the heavy weather of the previous days. Then we had to 'negotiate' the junction with the secondary gully; this bit was steep and exposed and covered in ice. No question of turning here - slow, careful slide-slipping was called for and it was a question of not 'tipping' over; this was a huge slide that gave on to an inaccessible glacier.

Some soft snow half way down this enormous gully provides a welcome rest a chance to relax for a bit and allow the skis to glide and enjoy themselves a little! We are then presented with more ice but this time on much safer slopes so this is easily dealt with before meeting up with Bleuenne and the zodiac to take us back to the boat. That said, getting on to the boat was exercise in itself given a nasty swell.

It was amazing to see how the high mountain 'ambiance' energised everyone even though the snow conditions were really pretty mediocre..

We were a disparate group this week but it worked really well! There were young people, not so very young people, Brits, Scots, French from the South-West and a brave lovely lady to add the feminine touch to this motley crew!

Keith, our only snowboarder, deserves a special mention: I was truly impressed to watch him work his splitboard especially during the storms when we changed from uphill mode to downhill mode... There was another record this week: Richard F was returning for the FOURTH time!

We aren't sure whether or not to include this trip on our future schedules as a large number of you have already been to Norway with us if not once, then twice! Paying for the boat so early in the season means that we need to have a certain guarantee in terms of reservations: Henceforth, we will only book for small groups of six people as these are easier trips for us to fill. So if you fancy a trip to Norway, please get in touch!

About us

Hello !

We hope you will enjoy reading about our trips (french and english versions).

Whether it's a skiing adventure or a walking holiday, whether in familiar territory or exploring new places, we wish to share our passion with you. We are always looking for new horizons and hope you willcontinue to join us.

For those who don’t know us yet, we invite you to visit our web page where you can read about our activities and trips.